Explore Kits for Kids hold tools for discovery and adventure

 

By Darren Lum

 

The
Dahl Forest in Minden Hills became the setting for learning when Minden
resident Jaime Bilodeau, her partner and her two-year-old daughter,
Holly, set out on a hike with the Explore Kits for Kids backpack.

The
Explore Kits for Kids backpacks hold close to two-dozen citizen science
tools and are an extension of the HHOA O4Y Mobile Classroom, which can
be used in schools, libraries, trade shows, special events, on the bank
of a river or at the edge of a wetland.

Bilodeau said she appreciated the pack for all the tools, but particularly how it encouraged her daughter to explore.

“This
kit is designed for those unfamiliar with local flora and fauna. It’s a
perfect kit for those visiting the area. Both my partner and I know the
area so well that we honestly didn’t use any of the reference materials
but the kit really got Holly interested in going for an adventure to
find turtles and frogs and kitties,” she wrote. 

This
was Bilodeau’s first trip to the 500-acre Dahl Forest, located five
kilometres from Gelert and managed by the Haliburton Highlands Land
Trust.

The kit has now “sparked a desire for us to take more family adventures.”

Among
the items inside the backpack: a magnifying screen; strainer; bug net;
dry erase board; compass/whistle; four double-sided information cards
with names and drawings of leaves, various birds such as eagles and
hawks, tracks of animals, insect larvae and nymphs; writing implements
and a retractable measuring tape. Bilodeau said the tools most used
during their hike were the magnifier and the net. 

She plans on using the backpack again for another trip.

“We
encountered a lot of wildlife – dead (snake) and alive and some cool
fungus and so many kinds of moss (which I had to research when I got
home to find out what it was). We will definitely use the pack again. We
would like to take it with us camping to try and catch some water bugs
with the net,” she wrote.

The
idea came from the Haliburton Highlands Outdoors Association and CARP
Haliburton, which obtained funding in 2018 from the New Horizons for
Seniors program to build a mobile classroom and launch the HHOA Outdoors
4 Youth Club. The backpack contents were also provided by The Land
Between’s Turtle Guardians program, Robinson’s General Store in Dorset,
Haliburton Foodland, the Friends of Algonquin Park, and the Glecoff’s
Family Store in Haliburton.

“The
HHOA and CARP Haliburton hold a joint interest in seniors teaching
youth and youth teaching seniors – the transfer of knowledge between all
ages with the outdoors being the venue and with nature providing the
teaching tools,” a press release from the HHOA says.
Backpacks can
be picked up from library branches in Dysart, Minden, Wilberforce,
Dwight or Baysville. In total, there are 25 backpacks, 20 of them are
available for loan from the libraries. The remaining five will be at the
HHOA fish hatchery where three will be used for the O4Y mobile
classroom and two at the Turtle Guardians office. 

Bilodeau
plans to return to the Dahl Forest, which offers interesting vegetation
and history, including wild oregano and old stone chimneys “standing
like hidden giants in the overgrowth.”

The
Outdoors 4 Youth committee welcomes anyone who would would like to
contribute, especially youth and seniors, though all ages are welcome.
Contact the HHOA at 705-457 9664 and leave a message for Rebecca or
email her at hhoaO4Y@gmail.com.